best places to work

Each year, BlueGrace female (Team Cats) and male (Team Dogs) employees compete against each other to see who can collect the most amount of pet food in total pounds. The food is then donated to a no-kill shelter to feed homeless animals in the community and used for pet owner assistance programs that benefit homebound and elderly residents on a fixed income. This year, the employees of BlueGrace collected over 60,000 pounds of food between Tampa & Chicago – reaching a new record for the contest on a location-wide scale.

Humane Society of Tampa Bay

Employees at BlueGrace Headquarters in Tampa were able to collect over 31,000 pounds of pet food to donate to Humane Society of Tampa Bay. Lon Savini, Shelter Operations Manager, gives us a breakdown of how impactful the donation is to supporting all of the services the shelter provides to the community:

Animeals Delivery Program:

Current monthly average spend on cat & dog food: $4,000

Delivered to over 170 recipients one Saturday each month

Donation Impact:

Will not need to buy large bags of dog food for at least 2 months

Will not need to buy large bags of cat food for a at least 1 month

Cost Savings: roughly $6,000

Food Assistance Program:

Current monthly average spend on cat & dog food: $2,100

Food is broken down into smaller bags and handed out to the public in need of assistance to feed their pets

Donation Impact:

Will not need to buy food for the remainder of the year

Cost Savings: roughly $16,800

Shelter Operations:

Current monthly average spend on cat & dog food: $2,350

Used to feed animals living at the shelter throughout the year

Donation Impact:

Will not need to buy large bags of dog food for at least 4 months

Will not need to buy large bags of cat food for a at least 1 month

Cost Savings: roughly $6,500

Since inception of the ‘Cats vs Dogs’ pet food drive in 2010, BlueGrace has now donated over 206,000 pounds of pet food to Humane Society of Tampa Bay.

Since inception of the ‘Cats vs Dogs’ pet food drive in 2010, BlueGrace has now donated over 206,000 pounds of pet food to Humane Society of Tampa Bay. The drive culminates each year with an adoption event at BlueGrace headquarters in Tampa, where 8-10 dogs and cats are brought in by the shelter and employees have the opportunity to take a new family member home. Almost all of the animals were adopted and welcomed home to their new BlueGrace families this year!

Team Cats Reclaim Their Title as Reigning Champions!

The competition is fierce each year – from catchy team names (“Check Meowt” & “Woof Pack”) to secret meetings in the restrooms, it’s a good old fashioned battle of the sexes for the entire duration of the drive. BlueGrace employees are not shy about their love for competition, some would argue that drive’s success has a large part to do with the fun of competing against each other. Team Cats had been the reigning champions EVERY year… until just last year. Team Dogs finally defeated the ladies in 2017 and claimed their crown – and they didn’t think twice about rubbing it in.

But not for long. Team Cats took the W this year and regained their title as THE champions…. and to Team Dogs they say – “Who’s cryin’ meow?”

While the competition aspect of the drive is fun for employees, the ultimate goal is to provide as much food as possible for homeless animals in the community. It’s an effort we are completely dedicated to and every year try to find ways to improve the drive.

“It’s amazing to see my coworkers come together in such a big way. It’s a lot of hard work for everyone involved, we donate our own money, use our own contacts, and organize our own fundraisers.” explains Courtney Smith – Manager, Culture & Engagement for BlueGrace. “it’s truly a genuine representation of who we are as a company and a culture.”

Be Caring of ALL Others Includes Animals

With the amount of growth BlueGrace has experienced over the last few years, the contest extended to other regional locations. This resulted in a major win by our Chicago team for animals at the Animal Rescue Foundation of Illinois this year, where BlueGrace employees collected over 32,000 pounds of food. One employee even secured the largest part of the donation, 30,000 lbs., by himself.

“What one office collected as an entity, one employee collected by himself – this is just beyond epic. We just think it’s really awesome that Scott [Collack] reached out and made this opportunity happen – these animals are truly cared about, we’ve got some really great people with some really big hearts in this company” Bobby Harris – CEO of BlueGrace, on Chicago employee Scott Collack securing the 30k donation.

Putting the Passion in Logistics

Core Value #1 is Be Caring of ALL Others at BlueGrace and is probably our most called upon value. It’s essential to our hiring process, the success of our business and the energy of our culture that our employees have some sort of empathetic trait. We work best with those who have compassion for others and truly show it.

“I started in 2011 and I’ve been able to see how much heart and teamwork goes into this every year. We truly live and breathe our core values here, and I think it’s because they were strategically created to align with the environment our team thrives in” says Whitney McKay – Manager of Marketing & Brand for BlueGrace. “There’s a special place in our hearts for animals, so we choose to do something about it by making it part of our culture. At the end of the day, we believe in their mission to end animal homelessness and really try to educate our team to help spread awareness.”

It’s YAPPY Hour, Not Happy Hour

One of the biggest contributing factors to the success of the drive in Tampa was the involvement of the community.

There are two things we can always count on for a big turnout when planning a fundraising event; One: people love animals. Two: people love happy hour.

This year our goal was to get as many people and organizations as possible involved in the Tampa community, and we knew exactly how to bring everyone together. There are two things we can always count on for a big turnout when planning a fundraising event; One: people love animals. Two: people love happy hour.

Hosted by Fuzzy’s Taco Shop, BlueGrace, Humane Society of Tampa Bay and Tampa Tails, the 2018 “Yappy Hour” fundraising event was wildly successful – raising over $4,000. Silent auction prizes were donated by top local companies like the Tampa Bay Lightning, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Florida Aquarium, Tampa Bay Rays and many more. Several businesses and organizations donated resources such as pet food, money, transportation services, raffle prizes and much more to make the final drive donation totals possible:

About BlueGrace

Founded in 2009, BlueGrace Logistics is one of the largest third-party logistics (3PL) providers in the United States. With over 500 employees and working with over 10,000 customers to provide successful shipping solutions, the company has achieved explosive growth in its nearly 10-year operating history. Backed by a $255 million investment by private equity firm Warburg Pincus, the company operates 11 locations nationwide, and its headquarters are in the sunny Tampa Bay area of Florida.

RIVERVIEW, Fla. – September 10, 2015: Each year BlueGrace holds their official “Cats vs. Dogs” contest amongst its employees. The contest is a pet food drive in which the women compete against the men to collect the most pet food in pounds. The food is then donated to the Humane Society of Tampa Bay to care for the animals in the no-kill shelter.

In 2014, BlueGrace donated more than 44,000 pounds of pet food which was enough to feed the animals for almost an entire year. Since the contest’s inception in 2010, BlueGrace has donated over 80,000 pounds of pet food to Humane Society Tampa Bay. Each year, BlueGrace plans to surpass last year’s amount. Employees come together to donate pet food, as well as leverage contacts to purchase large amounts of food. The contest will run through the middle of October.

BlueGrace Logistics takes pride in giving back to the community through our “Giving Grace” Program created by our President and CEO, Bobby Harris. Our Giving Grace charity of choice is the Humane Society of Tampa Bay and we support the organization in many ways throughout the year. Most recently, BlueGrace employees volunteered for Humane Society Tampa Bay during Creative Loafing’s BeerFest event at MOSI. A percentage of the event’s proceeds went to support the animal shelter.

The public is invited to participate in the Cats vs. Dogs contest. For information or to donate large amounts (such as a pallet of pet food) contact BlueGrace Logistics at community@mybluegrace.com. Please be sure to specify if you’d like to contribute to the “TeamCats” (girls) or “TeamDogs,” (guys) if applicable.

In the corporate world, I have worked through many Halloween festivities:

Plastic pumpkins and spider webs on top of desks;

“No lights! It’s a fire hazard.”

“Nothing hanging above the cubicles! It’s a major distraction.”

A ‘Beware’ sign or two on the hallway along with celebratory cake covered with bright orange frosting and a handful of people who were brave enough to dress up in costume; it was predictable.

And then I started working at BlueGrace.

Halloween Decorations at BlueGrace Logistics consists of life size skeletons and monsters

The idea of “Halloween at work” has now completely changed and transformed into a monster, and I mean that in an almost literal way (there’s a dead body inside of a coffin staring at me as I write this.)

“Where else can you make a grown man scream like a baby girl other than BlueGrace?” says BlueGrace Scare Master and Partner Invoicing Team Lead, Keith Gineo.

What was once predictable is now completely new and exciting!

Cubicles are decorated with spider webs from floor to ceiling, body parts hanging throughout the office, blood splattered in the break room…and best of all? Halloween is still 2 weeks away! Every day I arrive at work to a new surprise and everyone is thrilled about our biggest “employee appreciation day” of the year!

“I’m looking forward to the unexpected. I’ve heard a lot of hype about BooGrace and how crazy it is, but I don’t know exactly what that means. I’m pretty sure the costumes and decorations won’t disappoint, and I’m confident the accounting team will complete the 3-peat after winning the best decorated department again!!!” says Partner Invoicing Specialist, David Daniels.

By the 31st we will have a haunted house in the middle of the office, and dressing up in costumes is not just advised, but mandatory. Cake? Well, I’m not sure if there will be cake, but Happy Hour starts at 3PM and to me that’s completely out of my “Halloween at work” expectation.

“Everyone always has an awesome participation and the BG experience that we all share is amazing. We have many interesting events such as Spook Your Space, Trick Out Your Treats, Pick Your Poison, and Pimp Your Pumpkin, which the pumpkins are provided by the Human Society of Tampa Bay. This year will especially be memorable because I will be able to bring my daughter to work for trick-or-treating. A festivity myself, my co-workers and now my daughter wait for every year,” says Partner Invoicing Specialist, Dom Cipriani.

BlueGrace is often listed as one of the best places to work!Blue Grace has one of the most profitable franchise systems. The franchisees are encouraged to participate and replicate the headquarter’s festivities!Welcome to BlueGrace!The Halloween spirit at BlueGrace is infectious!

It’s easy to see why BlueGrace is so successful. The employees love what they do because they work in a place they love. They work hard because they’re allowed to enjoy being at work, making every day simply unpredictable!

Thanks to BlueGrace Logistics’ Partner Invoicing Team for sharing their #BGExFEARience:

Get in to the conversation with BlueGrace’s newest topics!
Check out the latest hashtags that will be featured throughout the month of October. We’ll be looking for our newest PowerTweeters this way too!

A recent article that appeared in the Tampa Bay Times shared a report from Wallet Hub that ranks Tampa as the third-best city in the country to find a job in 2014. This is great news as Tampa is coming out of the recession that hit the area so hard.

Headquartered in Riverview, right outside Tampa, BlueGrace calls Tampa Bay our home. Our local economy is bouncing back and we’ve been seeing signs of this throughout our business. In the last year, BlueGrace has continued to grow and with that growth has come new positions to be filled. We’ve started out the year strong with welcoming 35 new hires to the BlueGrace team here in Tampa. This growth will continue in an upward trend as the year progresses.

We currently have openings for Systems Engineer, Carrier Invoicing, Account Receivable, Customer Loyalty Representative, Corporate Paralegal, National Sales Representative, Enterprise Development Manager and Enterprise Development Representative. If you’re interested in any of these positions, you can email your resume to careers@mybluegrace.com or visit the Careers section of our website.

The Tampa Bay Business Journal announced BlueGrace Logistics as a finalist for the 2013 Best Places To Work. BlueGrace joined 12 other companies who were selected within the “Biggest” category that represented companies with over 101 employees in the Tampa Bay area. This is BlueGrace’s third consecutive year being recognized among the Best Places To Work by the TBBJ.

To be considered in the Best Places To Work selection, Quantum Workplace – a company that utilizes science based tools to study employee engagement, loyalty, and retention – conducts a 37 question survey with employees of the nominated companies. Results of the specific questions help measure 10 key engagement categories that are calculated in the Best Places To Work, including team effectiveness, employee value, trust in senior management, as well as compensation and benefits. After all surveys are completed and evaluated, each company is given a composite score of which ranks them among other companies in their size category. The top ranking companies are then selected as the finalists for their category.

BlueGrace Logistics celebrates this honor with its valued employees and will continue to see how it can push the envelope for the exceptional talent that makes this company incredible.

To find out more about BlueGrace Logistics, give us a call at 800.697.4477

Where’s one place you can catch employees and executives battling side-by-side in the sandy trenches of a beautiful Florida beach? Why America II Corporate SportsFest of course!

Once a year 150+ companies from across Tampa Bay compete for the esteemed title of SportsFest Champions… a position that we at BlueGrace® Logistics do not take lightly. This year brought our 3rd go-round at the event and our team of 41 players was pumped full of excitement and eager to compete! Never before have you seen such camaraderie covered in tanning oil; just bring your team spirit and game-face… no athletic skills necessary!

With five events to participate in, co-workers certainly get a chance to bond. Considering our staff has nearly doubled in size since last year’s fest, it was a perfect opportunity to get to know some of the new faces. Heather Anderson, our Culture Coordinator and Team Captain raves how beneficial the games are for team building,

“A lot of our employees are die hard competitors, so it’s nice to have to depend on each other to beat the other teams.”

BlueGrace team demonstrates what they're made of at Mudwars 2011.

Though BlueGrace employees make it look easy to function as team in the workplace, it does not happen automatically. Ideas for team building activities come from all employees and are supported by the leadership staff. BlueGrace schedules group activities including company softball and bowling league, Mudwars, and monthly themed office days such as barbeques, potlucks, corn hole tournaments, and #FreeBeerFriday (after 4pm). Each event allows employees to engage with one another to build stronger relationships and contribute more effectively in a team environment. In 2011 and 2012, BlueGrace Logistics was honored to be recognized as a Tampa Bay Business Journal’s Best Places to Work finalist.

Effective teamwork can yield incredible results, in the sand or the workplace. Listed below are just some reasons to participate in team-building activities within your company:

Creates unity where everyone is focused on a common goal

Encourages employees take ownership in the company’s success

Keeps everyone on a level playing field promoting a leaner business model

MMA is one of the fastest growing sports today and the fighters demonstrate admirable character and values (not often seen in other sports). Not to mention, the UFC has made a huge impression on the sports industry as whole through its social media madness! Although professional MMA fighting is banned in certain states, that hasn’t stopped the UFC from growing its devoted fan base. In fact, the President, Dana White, embraced the power of Twitter for branding and fan engagement. He invested in a media agency to teach the fighters how to use the social platform and instructed them by saying, “I want you to Twitter your *** off!”

Like Dana, President and CEO of BlueGrace Logistics, Bobby Harris, is an enthusiastic advocate of Twitter. Last year, Bobby championed an open social media policy for all BlueGrace employees; instilling trust to represent the brand, all BlueGrace employees complete a Twitter boot camp and social media training in their first week of employment. They’re educated on the power of social media, how to engage and build relationships, and why it is part of the #BGExperience. BlueGrace employees (fighters) interact with customers (fans), partners, and their fellow peers via Twitter.

Dana White and the UFC are to be commended on their commitment to social media and for demonstrating what #GreatnessIs … just ask their millions of die-hard fans! The UFC and BlueGrace Logistics made the critical move and experience the power of social media and business everyday – has your business?

Share your social biz story with us! Have you started? Are you way ahead of the game? Do you believe in the power of 140 characters? We want to know!

BlueGrace was named a finalist in The Tampa Bay Business Journal’s Best Places to Work for 2011. Some of the characteristics measured were team effectiveness, trust in leadership, feeling valued, compensation, and benefits. Scores and rankings will be announced at the award ceremony April 21st at the Lowry Park Zoo.